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Ironies of life

Recently I was going through some old boxes and discovered some articles I had written years ago. I thought it would be fun to see how things have changed since then, even though my demented view of the world still hasn’t.

The first one I want to share with you is one I wrote about
appliances of all things. Back then, a survey revealed that the most popular for major appliances was white.

I am always the last one to catch on to smart buys. See, I always leaned toward buying the prettier colored appliances. What you don’t realize however, is that you have to make up your mind for your lifetime because they wear out one at a time, not all together so that you can get everything in a new color.

I am tired of my green refrigerator that won’t fit in with my old pink
stove that was the fad when I got it 20 years ago. But if I get a new green stove to go with the refrigerator, then I’ll have to turn in my old rust colored washer and dryer set that my parents gave me for our wedding.

The trouble with colored appliances is that you can’t ever change your
kitchen decor. If you make the wrong choice in the beginning you don’t have a chance, because not only can you not change your curtains and pot holder colors, you would have to trade off your matching blender, coffee pot, mixer, and food processor.

Why aren’t we warned about these things at the beginning? I had no idea I was making a lifetime commitment to my pink stove when I
fancied it way back when. I am finally wising up though.

The other day when the bottom fell our of my rust colored washer, I just phoned in my order and told the salesman to send out your basic white washer. That was his easiest sale ever. I didn’t even go in to look at it. I don’t trust myself with a decision of this magnitude.

I used to want to run right out and buy the newest, improved products as soon as they came out. I just never learn. AS SOON as I get the latest product, the new improved version comes out. It is not only bigger and better, it is CHEAPER because they have finally perfected it! What was mine, the experiment?

Take my refrigerator for example. Ice makers didn’t exist when I bought my refrigerator. Now every time I see my mother scooping ice out of her ice maker, I turn green with envy. My only consolation is that she has the early ice maker, the one that first came out. You know, the one that makes the curved half-moon shaped ice
that blocks you from drinking the drink, the one that hits you in the face when you turn your glass up.

See, she got hers before the new improved version came out that makes the nice, round ice cubes. I thought I had the jump on her though when I got my huge console color TV with double speakers.

I still hadn’t learned my lesson. Remote controls did not exist when I got my fancy TV. They did though when she got her new wider screen, remote controlled set with the new stereo speakers. What are you supposed to do with your old stuff when you want to buy the latest of everything? No one wants them. They want the latest too. Even the kids won’t take them. Why should they? They have been taught by a master, don’t settle for best, wait for the improved.

This goes for other products as well. Why do they put “new improved taste, better flavor, better than before”? Was their old product the pits? They had told me IT was the best. Why should I believe them to improve it? If it isn’t my old product, then darn it, change the name to something else and give me my old product back!

Proof of that was when they tried to change the Coca Cola formula. We taught them didn’t we? The more improved they get, the more confused I get. Products come in so many varieties now that I get a headache trying to decide which one to use.

Remember the good old days of music? You just had a record player. No problem buying records, you just had to choose between hi-fi or stereo, No problem. But then came cassettes, then discs. To further aggravate me, they stopped making 8-tracks leaving you to forever more listen only to your oldies but goodies on your 8-track until it broke down leaving you with no way to listen to your 8-tracks anymore.
I thought I had finally gotten my revenge on them. I recently bought a complete Super-8 camera outfit complete with sound and indoor-outdoor capabilities. I secretly laughed at those fools that rushed
out to buy the regular no sound Super-8’s when they first came out. No siree, not me. I waited for the new improved product to come out.

Yesterday my husband told me to sell the whole outfit. He wants the new video camera that you film and show on your VCR. But what do I know? I am still waiting to buy some new film for my Kodak Instant Camera.

Back to present time – Wow. As I look back at my ramblings I realize the nothing has really changed much. Today I would have written about things like computers and how when you walk out of the store with a new one, you may as well turn around and go back in to get the latest one. Not to mention the new huge digital TV’s. It is even worse now than then.

You are absolutely right, your observations are just as valid now as they were then. When I saw the picture I had to laugh. If you remember, those appliances are almost duplicates of the ones we had in my parents house. Even our tile counter tops were that color. I loved them when my mom chose them to put in the kitchen of the house they built when I was a kid. When the frig. finally went kaput she replaced it with a white one. The only problem with that is the blue/green oven was built into a brick wall making it almost irreplacable. Loved the write so keep them coming.